"Commentary from P.M. Carpenter"

July 11, 2017

Trump Jr. is in big, big trouble

I gather that One Ls, as first-year law students are called, are taught that the best defense in criminal cases in which one's client is guilty as all get-out are arguments that have nothing to do with the criminal case at hand. To wit, Alan Futerfas, Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyer (as well as a mob lawyer, but I repeat myself), told the Times: "In my view, this is much ado about nothing…. Don Jr.'s takeaway from this communication was that someone had information potentially helpful to the campaign and it was coming from someone he knew. Don Jr. had no knowledge as to what specific information, if any, would be discussed."

As Chris Matthews would say, What is he twalking about? "This communication" — which, as the Times amusingly understates, "is likely to be of keen interest to the Justice Department and [sclerotic] congressional investigators" — was cloaked in a red flag the size of Vladimir Putin's ego. Before meeting with a Russian lawyer with ties to Russian intelligence who Trump Jr. "believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, [he] was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy."

The emailed "communication" came from one Rob Goldstone (who could have been Trump Sr.'s 400-pound guy from New Jersey, except he's British), and in it he informed Donald Jr. "that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information." Sunday, after being battered by undeniable revelations, Junior "acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy."

The Trumps: Liars to the end. Don Jr. had been told by Goldstone, in so many words, that the Russian lawyer was a Kremlin proxy who possessed potentially damaging, meaning valuable, information on Hillary Clinton. Don Jr. wanted it, and, as former White House Counsel Bob Bauer observes, federal law "prohibits foreign nationals from providing 'anything of value … in connection with' an election."

So what is the mob lawyer's defense of the spawn of Trump Sr.? That "Don Jr. had no knowledge as to what specific information, if any, would be discussed." Which isn't at all the criminal substance at hand.

As has been noted by other lawyers who survived their year as a One L with at least some ethics intact, any reasonably honest campaign operative approached by a foreign national with damaging information on an opponent would instantly contact the FBI. This, Donald Jr. did not do; what's more, he concealed the contact until undeniable revelations about it came raining down on his criminal head. Thus now he requires a mob lawyer to muddy the shark waters.

I shan't become excessively righteous about this, which Eugene Robinson would have done this morning, were it not for four little words. "Despite what Trump apologists may say, it is not normal practice for a campaign to welcome information undermining an opponent, regardless of the source," he writes. "In 2000, the Al Gore campaign was anonymously sent briefing books and a video that George W. Bush had used to prepare for an upcoming debate. Gore campaign officials immediately turned the material over to the FBI — which opened a criminal investigation."

Though Robinson's virtuous example is true, it is of course normal practice for a campaign to welcome damaging information on an opponent. What saves Robinson from self-righteousness, however, is his dependent clause: "regardless of the source." In the Trump campaign's instance, "the source" was a hostile foreign power hellbent on corrupting a U.S. presidential election. And because its intention was corrupt, it knew just whom to go to. And that, not even a talented mob lawyer can defend.

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Trump Jr. is in big, big trouble

I gather that One Ls, as first-year law students are called, are taught that the best defense in criminal cases in which one's client is guilty as all get-out are arguments that have nothing to do with the criminal case at hand. To wit, Alan Futerfas, Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyer (as well as a mob lawyer, but I repeat myself), told the Times: "In my view, this is much ado about nothing…. Don Jr.'s takeaway from this communication was that someone had information potentially helpful to the campaign and it was coming from someone he knew. Don Jr. had no knowledge as to what specific information, if any, would be discussed."

As Chris Matthews would say, What is he twalking about? "This communication" — which, as the Times amusingly understates, "is likely to be of keen interest to the Justice Department and [sclerotic] congressional investigators" — was cloaked in a red flag the size of Vladimir Putin's ego. Before meeting with a Russian lawyer with ties to Russian intelligence who Trump Jr. "believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, [he] was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy."

The emailed "communication" came from one Rob Goldstone (who could have been Trump Sr.'s 400-pound guy from New Jersey, except he's British), and in it he informed Donald Jr. "that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information." Sunday, after being battered by undeniable revelations, Junior "acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy."

The Trumps: Liars to the end. Don Jr. had been told by Goldstone, in so many words, that the Russian lawyer was a Kremlin proxy who possessed potentially damaging, meaning valuable, information on Hillary Clinton. Don Jr. wanted it, and, as former White House Counsel Bob Bauer observes, federal law "prohibits foreign nationals from providing 'anything of value … in connection with' an election."

So what is the mob lawyer's defense of the spawn of Trump Sr.? That "Don Jr. had no knowledge as to what specific information, if any, would be discussed." Which isn't at all the criminal substance at hand.

As has been noted by other lawyers who survived their year as a One L with at least some ethics intact, any reasonably honest campaign operative approached by a foreign national with damaging information on an opponent would instantly contact the FBI. This, Donald Jr. did not do; what's more, he concealed the contact until undeniable revelations about it came raining down on his criminal head. Thus now he requires a mob lawyer to muddy the shark waters.

I shan't become excessively righteous about this, which Eugene Robinson would have done this morning, were it not for four little words. "Despite what Trump apologists may say, it is not normal practice for a campaign to welcome information undermining an opponent, regardless of the source," he writes. "In 2000, the Al Gore campaign was anonymously sent briefing books and a video that George W. Bush had used to prepare for an upcoming debate. Gore campaign officials immediately turned the material over to the FBI — which opened a criminal investigation."

Though Robinson's virtuous example is true, it is of course normal practice for a campaign to welcome damaging information on an opponent. What saves Robinson from self-righteousness, however, is his dependent clause: "regardless of the source." In the Trump campaign's instance, "the source" was a hostile foreign power hellbent on corrupting a U.S. presidential election. And because its intention was corrupt, it knew just whom to go to. And that, not even a talented mob lawyer can defend.